Chief Ruoning left with Jinling. The woman still unconscious. Whenever she opened her eyes, she would probably be in a facility that the division operated.

"Well, I hope she finds the help she needs." Linlin said, rising.

"Sit down." Chief Abby barked, his own eyes on Liwu. He had been watching all this while. He knew her fire, her refusal to yield when a victim was presented before her. He reminded her often that sometimes, even the fiercest detective must accept limits. At least, she had not put up much if a fight this time.

"How is your team progressing on the novel based killer case?" He asked.

Linlin groaned. "We are nowhere. We have informed all law enforcement agencies to be on the lookout. We have undercover agents at the docks and every location mentioned in Crimson harbor. The family of the author is under surveillence. We have infiltrated every murder chat group sleazy Han gave us and the ones we know, but he doesn’t. Now, it’s just a matter of waiting."

Chief Abby looked from Liwu to Linlin. "I hope the two of you will take your fight outside next time."

Liwu rose with a grunt. She went to her office with a cold face, quite aware of the looks she was getting from her co-workers. She pushed the door open, muttering under her breath about a bad day and bad luck that was not even system related. Rather than waiting around, it was better to work from home for the rest of the day. She could do more research into Crimson Harbor.

Her heel caught on something. She slipped, flailing, and crashed forehead first against the edge of her desk. Pain exploded. "Ow--son of a gun!" She hissed, clutching her head. Blood trickled down her temple, staining her sleeve.

[+6000 POINTS: Slamming head into table and bleeding.]

"Bad luck system, you are relentless," she groaned.

She looked down at the culprit, not a rug this time, but a novel lying on the floor, its cover smeared with dust. She picked it up, wincing as blood dripped onto the cover. The title leapt at her: Murder on the Menu. A crime novel set in Hangzhou.

It was one of the novels from Sleazy Han’s list. She had bought every novel he thought would serve as future material for the mythical ’narration system killer’ they had not yet proven existed.

Curiosity prickled. Of all books, why did she slip on that one? Ever since her system activated, her slips stopped being random. She flipped through the pages, scanning the first murder in the book, which turned out to be the only murder. It was in the very first Chapter and it was gruesome--set in a bustling traditional restaurant, famous for its southern cuisines.

The victim was a famous philanthropist, but once upon a time, she was a high end escort. With the money she earned from that life, she funded ten orphanages and sponsored the education of hundreds of children. Her money that was considered dirty did a lot of good for society. She was woman people hated, admired and shunned, at the same time.

The author had not spared details when it came to the scene of her death: her body was discovered slumped over a banquet table, throat slit with a kitchen cleaver, blood diluting into the koi pond on the table. All the food on the table was untouched, but each plate had a splash of her blood. Her eyes were wide open, as if they had witnessed something horrible and bills of cash had been stuffed into her mouth.

Most bizarre were her undergarments. They were missing!

Liwu’s stomach twisted.

And then memory struck. A year ago, one of her brothers had dated a woman that was considered an "influencer or baddie!" It had driven both her parents almost insane. Because of this, they had all educated themselves on that world which they looked at with sneers often.

That is how she learned of a woman who called herself The virtuous Miss Cheng. She was a fashion influencer and a philanthropist, celebrated for funding a few orphanages and sponsoring the education of at least fifteen students nationwide.

She talked about this in a podcast and it became nationwide news for a while. The article had called her the face of the influencer economy.

A week later, news had leaked that Miss Cheng used to be a night time host for a year before breaking out in the fashion world. The woman had not denied the allegations. She embraced them and used the opportunity to gain more popularity.

Xuanji had praised her for a month. He had attended her fan party and got in a fight with a civilian. She was the one that bailed him out and prevented the incident from becoming a part of his official record. It was why Liwu recalled the story which under normal circumstances, would not have filled a corner of her mind.

The resemblance between the victim of this fictional murder and The virtuous Miss Cheng was uncanny. Her system buzzed louder, bad luck whispering nothing and everything in her ear. She knew better than to dismiss it.

She sat in her chair heavily, pressing a couple of tissues from a box to her forehead. With another hand, she flipped the page to see what caused the death of the woman in the novel. "Sleazy Han might have got it wrong." Others were still looking for the businessman who could be targeted in the city, she had a few hours to spare, chasing this new lead.

Liwu reached into her bag for a heat pack, replacing the tissues with warmth. She skipped to the end of the novel, when the detective who investigated the case finally arrested the killer. As it turned out, the desecration of the victim’s body was done after she was killed, by a waiter who found her first.

He sold those undergarments online!

The money in her mouth was left by a friend who happened to be in the restaurant coincidentally. She also found the body, stole the victim’s jewelry and left as if nothing had happened. It was anger because the victim managed to rise while the friend remained trapped in a cycle of poverty and prostitution.

A total of five people entered the private dining room, and each violated the victim in one way or another.

The killer was a random man who simply said this on questioning: "Light belongs to everyone, why did she shine it on only a few that she chose. I just wanted to make everything dark for all of us, and balance the scales."

Liwu pressed too hard on her bruise, and winced. She closed the book and exhaled. So, was that it? Had she accidentally stumbled on the next victim?